The following is a summary of “Development and clinical application of loop-mediated isothermal amplification combined with lateral flow assay for rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2,” published in the January 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Tang et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess if a multi-reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) diagnostic assay could fulfill the need for rapid syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection.
They merged the lateral flow assay with RT-LAMP technology, developing specific primers to concurrently detect the target and human-derived internal reference genes in a single reaction. An investigation into the assay’s limit of detection (LOD), sensitivity, and specificity was executed. The assay’s effectiveness was affirmed through validation using 498 clinical specimens.
The results showed 500 copies/mL LOD and no cross-reaction with other respiratory pathogens. Results from clinical specimens displayed significant concordance with real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) (Cohen’s kappa, 0.876; 95% CI: 0.833-0.919; P<0.005). Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity reached 87.1% and 100%, respectively.
They concluded that bypassing extraction, a novel multi-RT-LAMP assay, delivers rapid, visual dual SARS-CoV-2 detection in 30 minutes at 60-65°C, using a simple lateral flow strip.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-08924-3